GBMS’s mission to minimize container loss at sea is supported by EUR 300k pre-seed funding from an informal investor consortium. Their financial support, know-how and expertise will allow GBMS to further develop and commercialize its state-of-the-art real-time container and lashing load monitor system SensoriumC, to containerships worldwide.
The investors include 60South, Glass Frog Ventures, Ed Nobel and Iconica, and collectively bring an extensive industry network and business- and start-up expertise. The investment recognizes the enormous potential of SensoriumC to protect the maritime environment, minimize costs of damage and stand-still and optimize logistics by reducing the loss of containers at sea.
“We are thrilled to have the support of such experienced and well-respected investors,” said Michiel Gunsing, co-founder and CEO of GBMS. “This funding will allow us to accelerate the development of our technology and bring our product to market faster, ultimately saving the environment and preventing losses for shipping companies.
Container loss represents environmental and safety issues as well as financial loss
Driven by global warming, the maritime environment is getting increasingly unpredictable while recent economic developments have put a strain on the global container shipping capacity as well. With over 5500 container vessels transporting 200 million TEU containers per year the risks of losing containers are large and growing. Very notably, in 2019 MSC Zoe lost over 300 containers, spilling cargo over beaches of the natural reserves North of the Netherlands and Germany of which 800 tons are still not recovered. Other incidents involved the ONE Apus (1800 containers lost), the Maersk Essen (727 containers lost) and many more. Costly incidents which are less well known, but also are a threat to the safety at sea. Many of these losses could have been avoided if the crew had better awareness of the forces acting on their cargo.SensoriumC: real time load monitoring system
GBMS’s brand new SensoriumC system provides direct insight in the loads of containers and lashings. Much like a car’s speedometer tells when you’re speeding, SensoriumC indicates when loads become dangerous and should be acted upon. The SensoriumC system measures the ship motions and combines this with the container locations, masses and lashing information to calculate in real-time the loads each container and lashing endures. In case of dangerous situations, the crew can change course or speed to avoid exposing the ship, the crew and the cargo to risks. Apart from real time monitoring, the system can be used during the planning phase of a voyage and data can be logged for analysis afterwards."We were impressed by GBMS’s innovative approach to real time load monitoring and its potential to safeguard environment and maritime safety as well as minimize cargo losses" said Rolf Fouchier, director at Glass Frog Ventures. "We look forward to supporting the team as they continue to grow and develop their business."
About the investors
- 60South is the investment company of Mark Mol. Mark has a history in container shipping and a large network in ports around the world. He is an experienced driving force for several startup companies in Energy, Agri-food, Maritime and Emerging Tech.
- Glass Frog Ventures is a group of four experienced entrepreneurs and business angels that joined forces to invest in early stage innovative growth companies. Glass Frog Ventures participates in the Seed Business Angel arrangement of the Dutch government. For additional information, please visit:
- Iconica is a developer of dedicated tools for mobile devices. They are experienced developers of back and front-end systems with the best user experience. For additional information, please visit: https://iconica.nl
- Ed Nobel is an angel investor and former ship-owner who is now dedicated to performing measuring campaigns for weather dependent lashing.